sasha artemev

This is the second half of Sasha Artemev's routine on Pommel Horse. He was the second alternate selected after Morgan Hamm dropped out. The guy you see cheering in the white shirt is the alternate that wasn't selected. This video might not be around forever because NBC is pulling all Olympic clips off of YouTube. Jerks. Especially because that video isn't actually available on NBC's Olympics website.

Anyway, while I was watching this I got really nervous because he started to go so fast I thought he was going to fall off the horse. And sorry it's fuzzy.

Summer Olympics XXIX

Expect a lot of posts with this heading for the next 2 weeks.

So the first set of medals for Women's Sabre Fencing (something like that) was a sweep by US Women. So after the medal ceremony the girls went over to the stands were George H.W. Bush was waiting to greet them. And one of the girls was crying and he pulls a handkerchief out of his pocket and gives it to her. It was just so grandfatherly and normal and it made me giggle. :)

Also, I don't know who did the arrangement of the National Anthem for these games, but I think whoever did it had a bet trying to make as many people cry as possible. It's very...moving.

My Very First Time at Wrigley Field

I'm gonna kind of let the pictures and video speak for themselves.

Make sure your speakers are on for the video

Were those tornado sirens, you ask? Why yes, yes they were.

Ok, to be perfectly honest I had a blast. The whole time the storm was moving through I was having a great time. Honestly, I think they partially put the tornado sirens on to get people out of the stands and down into the concourse (which they had announced on the loud speaker, but most people weren't really moving). The last video is of us in the concourse squished in like sardines. They shut the doors (big metal things) for a bit, but it started getting really really hot so they had to open them again and just try to keep people from leaving. Afterwards, me and Kitty just walked home and the lightning was awesome! I told Kitty that there for a while right when the tornado sirens first went off and with the sound of the fire engine outside, that I kind of felt like an extra in a disaster movie. :)

Bummer.

So I've been having a lot of pain in my right wrist for the last couple of weeks ever since my first Pottery class. I was super excited about signing up because I used to take pottery throwing when I lived in Philly and I really liked it. So I went to the first class and during the first part when we were wedging the clay (it's a lot like kneading bread, only harder) my wrist was killing me. After that class I took some ibuprofen and it was mostly fine. A few days later it started to hurt A LOT, and it has hurt every day since then. It got so bad that last Friday at the bar I was using my left hand to drink my beer, and we KNOW that can't continue so I made a Dr.'s appt. So I went this morning and he told me I have ulnar neuropathy in my right wrist which is like Carpal Tunnel just on a different nerve (the ulnar nerve is on the outside of your wrist going up to your pinkie finger). Essentially the tissue around the nerve got inflamed from over-use and pushed the nerve around so the nerve is causing me pain. So we need to get the nerve back where it belongs so I don't have any permanent damage. So I had to quit pottery :( and I have to wear a brace and take some anti-inflammatories and do some exercises and hopefully it will go away with all that. If it's not gone after that, I'll have to go to physical therapy. Also I am to avoid any strain on it that's not absolutely necessary, hence quitting pottery. I'm supposed to try and do everything I can with my left hand (have you ever tried pushing a revolving door with only your left hand? Harder than you would think. And every building in downtown Chicago has a freaking revolving door). So I should probably also avoid typing, but since that's kind of essential to my job, I'll just make do. I'm really rather bummed out about having to quit Pottery (if you couldn't already tell) but the art center gave me credit for the rest of the classes and when I want to sign up next that'll pay for about half of my next class. So mostly I'm blogging about this to garner sympathy :) Poor me. :(

Conversation:

Anne:  Did you see that they were filming something across the street this morning?

Me: Why?  It's so humid out the picture quality would be terrible!

Anne:  It's called "Fancy Pants"

Me: Oh.  Nevermind.

Actually, I found out later it was called The Beast and it's some TV/Movie on A&E starring Patrick Swayze and I'm very upset that I didn't get to see him.  :)  

Wine Tasting

So at the Misericordia Charity Auction, a bunch of us went in together for a gift certificate that said it was a "wine tasting". In reality it was a gift certificate for a certain amount for a restuarant that was also a wine bar, but we still had a good time. First, the artsy pics:

The Restaurant:

The Wine:


The Food:

And of course, all of us:

Kitty and her work friend Sarah

Katie

Me and Anne

Bill & Katie

Amanda & Fondue

Bill & Gelato
Jessica

Me & wine
Anne & I
Kitty being silly

Everyone:
I realize that picture makes us look like tourists posing in front of Chili's, but I swear we weren't.  

I think I have something in my eye

The Atkisson Family: Happy Birthday Abby!#links

Seriously?

Who buys this stuff?!!

Happy 1st Birthday Abby!!!!

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to Abbymyfavoriteniece,

Happy Birthday to you!

Abby is celebrating her 1st Birthday in Las Vegas. Hopefully she won't do anything too wild that she'll regret :)

She's there with mom, Michael, Christine, Uncle Johnny and Aunt Mickey, and Aunt Jan! What a birthday!

Revamp

So I think I'm going to alter the way I do this blog a bit. Before I was just putting in major events or product/movie reviews. And I always put in pictures. I haven't been using my camera much lately because I haven't been really doing anything to write home about. Just run of the mill hanging out in Chicago.

SO. I'm going to keep doing the big posts from time to time, but I'm also going to start doing small posts a few times a week too. Just stupid stuff like, look what I found on the internet, and isn't this a funny headline/comment/conversation I had stuff that might not be particularly funny to anyone but me. But I'm gonna do it anyway.